Monday 13th August 2018
We are travelling to Belgium on a coach and ferry.
The coach is travelling from Ferryhill to Dover so that we can get the ferry from Dover to Calais and then the coach will take us the rest of the way. The total journey time is about 7 hours and 30 minutes.
It’s 2am and we have arrived for the bus journey to Belgium. Everyone is very excited, despite the early start.
It takes over 5 hours to get from Ferryhill to Dover for our ferry. A lot of us have took this opportunity to sleep!
We made two comfort stops on the way to Dover and on the second stop we picked up our expert historian Dr Bruce Cherry.
“A former university lecturer with his PhD in military history, Bruce has been guiding on the Western Front since the late 1980s. Indeed for many years he operated a range of First and Second World War tours out of Lille. As an academic, his tours very much emphasise the learning aspect that is to be gained from battlefield touring.”
The ferry crossing to Dover was great for photo opportunities!
When we arrived in France Dr Bruce began talking to us about World War One. He described what the land we were passing would have looked like 100 years ago and played significant part in the war. He explained how allied forces had created train tracks to transport essential supplies to the front line from the port in Calais.